New England coach Brendon McCullum has recalled the moment he informed Harry Brook of his call-up for the first Test against New Zealand.
Brook is one of two uncapped players hoping to make his debut at Lord's next month, along with Durham seamer Matty Potts. The 23-year-old has been in brilliant form for Yorkshire so far this season, scoring 758 runs in eight innings at an average of 151.60.
He has already scored three hundreds and made his T20I debut for England earlier this year against the West Indies. However, he was evidently taken by surprise when he received a phone call from McCullum to tell him he had been called up.
While recounting the story in an interview with the ECB , McCullum laughed: "When I rung Harry last night I said, 'Hi Harry, it's Baz McCullum here mate'. He said, 'oh, hi McCullum... oh s***, I can probably call you Baz now!'
"It was brilliant, I am looking forward to meeting up with him. He's another example of the talent which exists throughout the county system.
"Hopefully we can allow players like that to bring what they've been able to do at county cricket to the next level and just play with a bit of freedom. He's been referred to as a little bit of a KP-type player and if he's half as good as KP [Kevin Pietersen] then we're going to be going okay."
Pietersen himself is a big fan of Brook and had advocated for his inclusion in the squad after a "brilliant start to the summer". And Yorkshire head coach Ottis Gibson believes Brook is England's most in form batter.
"I think he's playing the best in the country at the moment," he said. "Brooky's scoring his runs at a run-a-ball, and although when he goes upstairs into the Test arena it might be different, he's playing really positively and putting the bowlers under pressure.
"He's made runs in every game we've played so far, in different conditions and at different times. I keep saying that we won't see much of him [going forward] because he's playing so well, so therefore if they [England] are picking the best team, then they'll most likely be picking him."
